How to engage your child this winter – 8 Tips

It takes a wizard to come up with endless ideas to keep those curious minds engaged. However, we've tried to give you at least some tips that you can try this winter.

8 Tips To Keep Your Child Engaged This Winter

1. Culinary Fun: A fun activity that you can enjoy with toddlers and older children alike, it's time to don the chef's hat.
   1. Bake seasonal goodies – a simple Christmas cake or cookies
   2. Teach your child to put together simple meals – salad, chaat, or fruits with cream
   3. Cooking or baking together is not just a wonderful way to unleash creativity, but it's bonding time, too!
2. Get Arty: Remember that time when we hand-wrote cards and posted them to our friends and family? It's time to give life to that feeling of nostalgia!
   1. Ask your child to make some pictures for holiday cards
   2. She can also work with beads, ribbons, buttons depending on her age
   3. Finger painting is a great option for making cards, too
   4. Ask your child to handwrite messages for close family and friends
   5. Do your bit by posting them early enough!
3. Story corner: Libraries and bookshops often have story corners where storytelling sessions are conducted. Make a story corner at home this winter.
   1. Ask your child to invite friends if she likes, for the story sessions
   2. You can form a story group with like-minded mothers and have each one do a session on a different day
   3. Take it a step further and enact stories if your child shows interest. Dressing up like Red Riding Hood can bring some laughs in on a cold winter day!
4. Cuddle up with a book: Even if full-blown storytelling sessions don't happen, make sure you curl up with a book on the sofa with your child.
   1. Have a “Winter Book Project” where your child gets to choose one book every day for you to read to her
   2. With an older child, she can read the book and discuss it with you – what she thought of the book, what she liked and didn't like about it
   3. She can make a book journal with a few lines written in her own words about each book she reads
5. Bring the games inside: So what if it's too cold outside to play hide and seek? Bring the fun indoors.
   1. Have an indoor hide-n-seek game with your little ones. Toddlers, especially, love this old favorite
   2. Make a treasure hunt inside your home – the idea of finding a prize at the end of all the searching is enough to motivate your children to get moving
6. Memory Book: Few things are as delightful as reminiscing while looking at old photographs. So create some fun memories this winter.
   1. Print out copies of photographs of your child right from his birth until now
   2. Create a scrap book with the photographs pasted chronologically, with fun comments about what was happening when the picture was taken
   3. You can ask grandparents and other close family members to write comments, too
7. On board with household chores: It's never too early to teach your child to share chores.
   1. With younger children, assign simple tasks like dusting the coffee table, or putting the newspapers back in the rack
   2. Older children can help with cooking, making grocery lists
8. Music and dance: Nothing gets the adrenaline flowing like dancing. Put on some music that your child likes, and dance like nobody's watching. Let your hair down and enjoy the music. Dance is a great way to unwind while burning off those calories, too!

Winter needn't be about gloomy days, doctor visits and restlessly waiting for school to reopen. This winter break, bring the fun home. Have a wonderful, cozy winter!

Did you find these tips on keeping your child engaged this winter, useful? Share your feedback with us in the comments section!